Tennant Creek to be sold wine in plastic bottles

The Tennant Creek Liquor Accord is in discussions with supplier Westend Estate Wines about replacing glass wine bottles with plastic as they prepare to introduce more restrictions on the sale of alcohol.

There are already restrictions on the sale of cask wine after 6pm in Tennant Creek, and from October 1st the accord is planning to extend that to all wine.

The other change will be restricting the sale of alcohol to mid-strength only on Mondays.

The restrictions mean customers will not be able to buy take-away wine for 20 trading hours each week.

Tennant Creek Hotel owner, Jordan Jenkins, says the accord is hoping the changes will make the community a better place.

"We have been working closely with licensing for the last few months about targeting the three main areas, which is smashed glass, excessive drinking and after hours violence.

"We've proposed that we're going to start 'mid-strength only Monday', which will give everyone a fresh start to the week.

"And we're also restricting no wine available between six and eight, so this should stop cheaper alcohol going into the community later in the evening, and causing the afterhours violence that we tend to see," he says.

Jordan Jenkins says discussions with the supplier West End Wines, about introducing plastic wine bottles, are ongoing.

"We've been in discussions with the main wine supplier, who have agreed to trial plastic wine bottles, so they're in a trail of that at the moment and hopefully that will be coming out in a couple of weeks.

"This will solve all the smashed glass that I think people are seeing not only in Tennant Creek bu in Alice Springs and in Katherine as well," he says.

Mr Jenkins says the Accord did consider a floor price.

"My understanding was that we ran into a few issues with the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) and the AHA (Australian Hotel Association), so we disbanded the floor price discussions and we've started on a new path to tackle the problems,' he says.

Listen to Jordan Jenkins extended interview with Stewart Brash by clicking on the audio.